Life without marriage and sex can be frustrating – even for a rebel with a cause. For the CPI(Maoist) its ban on the union between man and woman is becoming a big worry. Vijay Murty reports.

Life without marriage and sex can be frustrating – even for a rebel with a cause. For the CPI(Maoist) its ban on the union between man and woman is becoming a big worry.

Scores of youths are deserting it to go to splinter outfits or surrendering to join the mainstream, a former Maoist told HT recently.

The large-scale exodus of young cadres amid a leadership crisis is shrinking areas of the Maoists’ areas of control and dominance.

From 182 districts across the country a few years ago, the Maoist writ runs in less than 50 districts today, sources said.

“Stringent laws on marriage, punishment and demotion of cadres indulging in marriage and sexual escapades, shrinking public support and the heightened offensive by security forces are leading to an exodus of youngsters from the organisation,” former Maoist organisation secretary and currently a mukhiya (village head) in Jharkhand’s Palamu district, Bablu Yadav alias Bhagalpurijee told HT.

He said youths in the Maoist camp are a frustrated lot. “Scores of them have shifted allegiance to splinter groups in Jharkhand, bordering Orissa and Chhattisgarh because these outfits have a liberal attitude towards marriage,” he said.

As a policy, the rebels are not supposed to marry after joining the movement. But if they do, they are demoted and sometimes expelled with a warning not to engage in any anti-Maoist activity. Raising a family is a strict no-no.

Former Maoist special area committee member, Jugal Kishore Pal alias Madanjee summed up the situation aptly: “They may call me a traitor today but I am happy uniting with my wife and children after devoting 22 years of my precious life to the organisation, wandering in the jungles fighting for a change in society and system of governance.”